A Minecraft Movie Review

Minecraft is one of the biggest video games in the world, delighting millions of players. After years of development, a film adaptation has been released.

Henry and Natalie (Sebastian Hansen and Emma Meyers) are brother and sister who move to Chuglass, Idaho, after the death of their mother. On his first day of school, Henry befriends Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison (Jason Momoa), a video game store owner and former video game champion, and Henry discovers that Garrett has a unique cube artifact. Henry, Natalie, Garrett, and real estate agent Dawn (Danielle Brooks) find themselves teleported to the Overworld. This ragtag team must find a way back home while being chased by Malgosha’s (Rachel House) army.

Video game adaptations have seen a gradual improvement. The Super Mario Bros. Movie was well-received by fans, grossing over $1 billion at the box office. Similarly, the Sonic the Hedgehog movies have improved with each entry. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is one of the most critically successful video game movies. While on TV, The Last of Us and Fallout were critically acclaimed; however, video game adaptations have still been capable of making complete turkeys, like with 2024’s adaptation of Borderlands. At the box office, A Minecraft Movie looks like it’s matching The Super Mario Bros. Movie, but critically, the results have been mixed.

Minecraft is popular. My nephews were excited to see the film; the merchandise has been huge, and it has even been featured in a McDonald’s Happy Meal tie-in. However, the setting and gameplay don’t lend themselves to a movie adaptation. The point of the game is that it’s meant to be a sandbox that allows for creative freedom. There isn’t much of a narrative or characters to build a film around. The production process shows this because Shawn Levy and Rob McElhenney were set to direct before Jared Hass (Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre) got the job. The film had five credited writers and many more had uncredited collaborations, including big names like Kieran and Michele Mulroney (Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows), Jonathan Goldstein (Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves), Jon Spaihts (Dune and Dune: Part Two), and Zak Penn (The Avengers, Ready Player One). These writers struggled to crack the Minecraft nut.

The screenplay for the Minecraft movie seemed like it was stitched together from the various ideas and pitches over the years. This was evident at the beginning of the film, where a prologue showed Steve (Jack Black) discovering the portal to the Overworld, making it his private paradise, before Malgosha captured him. Then, there was a second prologue about Garrett’s heyday as a video game champion, but in the present, on the verge of going broke. Within the Overworld, there were two plots. One involved the main characters going on a fetch quest to get an artifact so they could go home, and the other involved stopping the bad guys from taking over the Overworld. There was also a subplot where a villager from the Overworld finds themselves in the real world. Due to all these different story elements, some characters were pushed to the sidelines: Natalie and Dawn were the victims of this.

Even though A Minecraft Movie had a messy development, the filmmakers were able to make it somewhat coherent. It was also an unoriginal film, which was ironic considering it was meant to champion creativity. A Minecraft Movie aimed to be the video game adaptation equivalent of The LEGO Movie, as it was a giant advertisement for a product that told a story about heroes stopping a villain who hated creativity. The LEGO Movie was a better film because of its knowing wit. A Minecraft Movie was better than the last family movie that was meant to be a celebration of creativity, Harold and the Purple Crayon. A Minecraft Movie was an “Iseaki” story since it was about characters from the real world finding themselves in a video game world.

The filmmakers realised that due to the thin story material, they had to lean into the zany comedy. Hess came from a comedy background, and Momoa and Black were brought in for their comedic skills. Momoa was playing against type, like he did in Fast X: he dressed like he was a reject from the Barbie movie, and his gamer backstory was like the characters in Pixels. Jack Black was playing to type; his performance in A Minecraft Movie was like his performances in other family comedies. The pair played up on having a rivalry, with Moana trying to act like an alpha male, and Black was chubby middle-age bloke who was more skilled in the Overworld.

When the movie moved to Overworld, it turned into an animated movie. The animation and visual effects were strong, but it was felt that the actors were standing on a blue screen. It was amusing that the director and main actors were American, and they had to go all the way to New Zealand to work in a soundstage.

A Minecraft Movie did the job for its target audience since the younger members of my audience enjoyed it. However, for older audience members, A Minecraft Movie was a messy experience that they would tolerate.